Shadows of Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington Shadows
Originally uploaded by Roadduck99

I regularly drive by New Hampshire's Mount Washington as I commute to my home away from home in Montpelier, Vermont. Combined with its neighboring peaks, Mount Washington is an imposing presence in the Northern part of the state. And yet it remains a very accessible mountain. Several towns are at its base, and the peak is accessible via car or train.

This accessibility is a conundrum. The mountain is an imposing presence, a massive hulk looming over the highway. The peak is covered with snow for much of the year, and the height of the mountain often creates its own weather. It's not particularly inviting, to say the least.

And yet there it is, a constant presence amidst north woods civilization. Routes 2 and 302 guide traffic around the mountain. Towns like Gorham and Bretton Woods dot its base. It's like living next door to a giant. You respect the mountain and aren't inclined to mess with it, but you always have the opportunity to check in and see what's going on.

The Mountain looms large over Lancaster, NH.

For this reason, Mount Washington has a certain appeal to me that is missing from Maine's own giant, Mount Katahdin. Katahdin is a hulk in its own right, but it's also kept separate from the populace, safely tucked away in Baxter State Park, miles away from the nearest town.

View from the top of Katahdin.

I'm certainly not saying that it's preferable to have people living on the slopes of every mountain. It's important to maintain wilderness and protect these habitats. And while wilderness has its romance, the mountains among us have a romance of their own. One can gaze up at the heights and see how they are impacted by the change in seasons, or even the day's weather.

Part of me longs to live next to this giant rock, and spend my days learning its secrets. I want to climb it, drive up it, take the train to the top. I want to visit the weather station at the summit. I want to sit on its rocks and write about the mountain surrounding me. And I want to take my camera out every day and chronicle the many moods of the mountain. I'm a mountain guy who lives next to the ocean, but my dreams take me to the hills. For now, I enjoy my periodic drives by this giant beauty.

Garden Update

Square Foot 0604
Originally uploaded by Roadduck99

It’s been about a month since I started this year’s garden, so I thought I would provide an update. It’s my first time trying the Square Foot Gardening method. The originator of this method, Mel Bartholomew, promises that SFG is a fairly low-maintenance method of growing vegetables, and so far I am finding that to be the case.

Of course there is the original work involved in assembling the boxes, mixing the soil and filling the boxes. In reality, accumulating the required materials takes as much time as assembling everything at home. If you want to do this on the ultra-cheap and find people who will give you scrap materials, it will probably take more time. But time is money, and I was willing to pay for convenience.

I also knew that I was going to want to put trellises on my boxes in order to grow tomatoes, beans and cucumbers vertically. Since it was going to be awhile before anything would be ready to climb, I didn’t let the lack of trellises keep me from planting.

In early May, I put in cold-tolerant plants: broccoli, onions, shallots, carrots and several varieties of lettuce. Unfortunately, we have a groundhog in the area who doesn’t understand boundaries, but who also happens to enjoy greens. The groundhog slowed the development of the lettuces and offed one of the two broccoli plants. This necessitated a deterrent. So when I put up the trellises, I also jerry-rigged some posts to hold up bird netting to keep the pests out. This was meant to be a temporary fix, but it seems to be doing well in keeping the rodents away, so I am taking my time with the upgrades.

Over Memorial Day weekend I put in a few other plants – two tomato plants, a pepper plant, basil and swiss chard. I also planted seeds to grow pest-deterring marigolds and zinnias. A week later I planted pole beans and cucumbers. I have also relocated some parsley that was in another garden bed and which also turned out to be on the groundhog’s menu.

Checking in today, things have really started to grow. The cukes finally popped out of the ground the other day, and so everything is off and running now. Free from groundhog nibbles, the lettuce is going strong, and the broccoli (including a seedling I purchased to replace the one that didn’t make it) is growing fast. The seeded items are all up and making their way. We’ve even harvested some lettuce leaves to put in our salads, though we don’t have enough yet to preclude our buying store-bought greens. And I have a couple squares still available for later plantings of lettuce or broccoli, or maybe something else altogether.

Mel promises very little weeding because we start with weed-free soil. That’s mostly true, though he maybe didn’t anticipate that my own compost might have some still-viable seeds in it, or that the maple tree in my back yard would be dumping dozens of seeds on the garden. The good news is that the weeds are easy to see and, since they aren’t embedded in the soil, easy to pull.

All in all, the first month with the new garden has been very gratifying. I look forward to sharing more results in the future.

Open the door.

Doorknob
Originally uploaded by Roadduck99

If you’re still with me on this thing, be advised that what follows isn’t what you’ve come to expect from me. This isn’t intended to be a naval-gazer blog. Sometimes that’s just what’s needed.

I’m looking for a door to open. I think there’s one around here someplace, and perhaps it’s already open, like the one in the photo. Perhaps, like the photo, there’s a window that reveals what is on the other side, and perhaps the door is already open wide enough that the outside is reflected in the doorknob. And perhaps it has been there all along, but I’ve only seen the door separating me from the other side and never looked closely enough to notice the knob was ready for me to turn.

The 12 months or so have been difficult for me. Almost exactly a year ago, my wife and I moved into a new house in the heart of town. This was supposed to be an exciting new beginning, with a smaller mortgage and a smaller commute. What it has turned into, for me, has been a lot of dissatisfaction. I’ve had difficulty sorting out priorities and setting goals, or even seeing the value in doing so. I haven’t given the attention deserved by my marriage, my job, or myself. I have sought counsel to sort things out. I have, I am sad to say, come away with a lesser opinion of myself.

I have discovered that the doors I believed were keeping me out of a good place, may in fact be keeping me in a bad place. I don’t need to arrive so much as I need to escape.

I began this blog because I had stories to tell. I have not been allowing myself to tell these stories for a couple of years now. I have many excuses, but it doesn’t seem important to hash through those here. I’ve got people with whom I can discuss those. In recent months I have taken up telling stories through photographs that I post at flickr. The doorknob photo, I think, tells more of a story about me than about the old building that houses it. (The farmhouse at the McLaughlin Garden in South Paris, if you’re curious.) Other photos that I have posted tell stories about my gardens at home and the world that I see around me.

They say a picture tells a thousand words. I like them because, though I have much to learn, a photograph can be quick and easy to produce. They are also quick and easy for many people to enjoy. Writing, for me, is usually fairly quick and easy, too. When I have a story to tell, I can produce half a picture in a fairly short amount of time. But somewhere along the way I have closed myself in a room thinking that it’s not so quick and easy to write – not if I want to “do it the right way.” But I think it’s time to try turning the knob and see if the door will open.

I have stories to tell. I won’t be telling one every day, and not all will appear here, but I will be telling them. The door is open.

Grow Your Own

Down with the plants
Originally uploaded by Roadduck99

The time has finally come when those of us in Southern Maine can start in earnest to grow a vegetable garden. I had a small, traditional plot at my old house, but moved at such a time last year that growing veggies at home was impractical. I’m a big believer of eating locally, so Doreen and I took advantage of the local farmer’s markets to a great extent, even during the winter.

My back yard, however, is even more local than all those wonderful farms, so I was keen to start growing my own produce this year. Over the winter, Doreen’s cousin turned me on to the Square Foot Gardening method. (Note to self – return Denise’s book!) It’s a simple method developed by a gentleman named Mel Bartholomew, if a somewhat radical departure from traditional row gardening, wherein one maximizes the utilization of one’s space and enjoys a more flexible planting schedule.

Since I don’t have a ton of space at my new house for a traditional plot, this sounds like a perfect solution for my needs. In recent weeks I bought some 2x6 pine boards for the boxes, along with some 4’ ash lathe for the grids. Mel calls for making one’s own soil called “Mel’s Mix,” which is equal parts peat, compost, and vermiculite (or pearlite, which Mel doesn’t prefer but which is much more readily available – I have a little of each in my mix). I assembled the boxes in mid-April, and filled them with my freshly-made soil over the past weekend. Now to get planting.

Though I have in some years started seeds inside, I’m usually a little behind schedule for what the garden needs. (“Broccoli – ‘k it says here I need to start these 12 weeks before last frost. Last frost is toward the end of May and today is…..May 2. So I need to start these eight weeks ago.”) Fortunately, the local farmers are a lot more on top of this than I am, so I can get seedlings from them. Maybe it’s a little more expensive than seeds, but I’m not going to grow 100 broccoli plants anyway, and 50 cents for a plug seems perfectly reasonable.

So this week I got started with some seedlings from the Tuesday Farmer’s Market – and just in time for three days of nourishing torrential downpours, I mean rain. I’ve started with plants that should withstand any lingering frost we might get: broccoli, onions (Red Wing), lettuce (Romaine, Red Sail, Black Seed Simpson (I think)), and arugula. I also bought some shallot sets and put them in the ground this morning. I might pick up some radish seeds because they are fast and easy and can be planted right now.

I’ve still got a bit of infrastructure to build – mainly trellises on the north side of the beds to hold vining plants. Mel claims I can grow pumpkins on the trellis, but I believe I will start with cukes and tomatoes. Those will have to wait a few more weeks to go in. I also have plans for (short) carrots, peppers, and a few more things we haven’t decided on yet. A few squares will be dedicated to marigolds and basil to keep pests away, and maybe some alyssums or other flowers for a little color.

I’m excited to be growing food again. Keeping it fresh, local and organic is definitely the way to go!

Daffodil

Daffodil
Originally uploaded by Roadduck99

I think, maybe, spring is here.

Almost a year in the new house. It's gratifying to see something that we put in the ground last autumn - these daffodils - come up and bloom for us this spring. We've done a lot of work inside the house to make it ours. I'm glad that the outside will feel more like our own this summer as well.

Baby Lilies

Baby Lilies, originally uploaded by Roadduck99.

Snow is gone and new growth is already starting to sprout. Here are my day's-old day lilies, covered in morning dew. (OK, technically raindrops, but that sounds less romantic.)

Flickr is my new thing, please check out my photostream and leave your thoughts and comments, good or bad.